Security News

The methods used by contact tracing apps also play a role in the question of effectiveness versus privacy. Contact tracing apps store contact logs, encryption keys, and other sensitive information on the mobile device.

Let's just start with the big question here: Would you use a contact tracing app and why or why not? Contact tracing is something still done by people in lab coats, and you know, something that you might see maybe in the movies, and it can be supported by exposure notifications, like an app on the phone.

A blog post published Wednesday by Google explains what the company is doing to fight coronavirus-related attacks and what users can do to protect themselves as well. Implementing proactive monitoring for COVID-19-related malware and phishing emails, Google said that most of the observed threats are not new but are simply repackaged malicious campaigns designed to exploit all the attention on the coronavirus.

Researchers are warning of an ongoing phishing attack that's targeting the credentials of more than 100 high-profile executives at a German multinational corporation that's tasked with procuring coronavirus medical gear for Germany. The company, left unnamed by researchers, is part of a task force created March 30 by the German government and the private sector to procure personal protective equipment for healthcare workers on the front lines of COVID-19, such as face masks and medical equipment.

Open Rights Group has instructed lawyers to lodge a complaint with the UK's data watchdog over the rollout of the Test and Trace system because it says the system breaches the General Data Protection Regulation. The complaint to the ICO relates to the failure by the NHS and Public Health England, which runs the Test and Trace programme, to conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment, which is required under the GDPR before processing of data in high-risk situations.

You've probably had the COVID-19 coronavirus social-engineering scams quietly filtering into, hopefully, your junk folder by now. While it makes a change from exclusive offers to help transport millions in lost wealth from Ghana to Switzerland, or demands to hand over Bitcoin to retain sovereignty over your "Interesting" pornographic preferences, there's a real danger with crooks pivoting to exploiting the coronavirus pandemic.

Over the first quarter of 2020, the number of security bugs disclosed by software makers fell 20 per cent though not for any of the right reasons, it seems. Analysts at Risk Based Security cited both internal data and public reports from vendors in putting the number of security vulnerabilities reported over the first three months of the year at 4,968, down from 6,198 over the same period in 2019.

Over the first quarter of 2020, the number of security bugs disclosed by software makers fell 20 per cent though not for any of the right reasons, it seems. Analysts at Risk Based Security cited both internal data and public reports from vendors in putting the number of security vulnerabilities reported over the first three months of the year at 4,968, down from 6,198 over the same period in 2019.

France's privacy watchdog gave the green light Tuesday to a government-backed cellphone app that will alert users if they have been in contact with an infected person. Use of the app called StopCovid will be voluntary, and will keep track of users who had been in close proximity of one another over a two-week period.

India has open-sourced its Aarogya Setu contact-tracing app and announced a bug bounty programme to detect any security issues. The nation has now decided to open the app and run a bug bounty programme.